Lecture #6- Social Inequality in Canada Flashcards
Social inequality
Socially structured difference where groups and individuals with specific attributes have more control and greater access to opportunities than those who don’t
Classes
- Categories of people with a common group membership who work together towards a collective goal
- Classes do not have meaning if they are not seen as real people
- People create the rights and opportunities that define classes and people are capable of changing them through social action
“Structural functionalist school”
Argued that classes exist on a continuum that can be divided into clusters of occupations that hold similar value in society
Political control
When individuals actions are controlled by rules of conduct, imposed by those in authority
Ideological control
Involves having control over knowledge, beliefs and information in order to establish inequalities between groups or individuals
Power
The ability to control resources and situations either economically, politically or ideologically
Corporate Power
- Power that is given in large amounts to big corporations in the modern world
- Workers, communities and States must rely on the capitalist class for survival
- Corporate power wants to maintain hegemony or dominance. While the corporate elite is much less patriarchal and monocultural, its ethnic and gender composition is still very different from the rest of the population
What are the 3 forms of power in corporate capitalism?
- Operational power- involves control of the labour process within the companies that produce the economic profit
- Strategic power- control of the corporation itself, often through ownership of shares
- Allocative power- control of credit which is important when changing operations or dealing with reduced revenue as a result of economic contraction
Localism
The development of small-scale businesses as an alternative to the growing concentration of corporate power
Polarization
- Polarization is a decrease in the share of high skilled jobs requiring high skilled decision making skills and post-secondary degrees, an increase in both medium skilled jobs requiring at least high school diplomas and low skilled jobs which only require on the job training
- There has been an increase in precarious employment which includes job uncertainty, unpredictable variations in income and work schedules
Homogenization of the working class
- The increased share of private sector employment accounted for by small establishments has significant implications for working class formation
- Workers in small workplaces are paid less, have fewer benefits, are less likely to receive on the job training, and are more likely to be laid off
Class consciousness
Considers how structural conditions are interpreted by those who experience them
Class Identity
Defined as an awareness of membership in a distinct class
Class opposition
The belief that the interests of workers and capitalist are opposed
Counter hegemonic consciousness
Involves a belief in the possibility and desirability of a society that is organized along non-capitalist lines
The social acceptability hypothesis
Suggests that women are more willing to accept the sick role than men and are more likely to report psychological distress, poor self-rated health and the presence of a chronic condition than men
Internalized homophobia
Refers to learned biases that people incorporate into their belief systems, including LGBTQ people themselves
External homophobia
Refers to observed and experienced expressions of internal biases, such as avoidance, verbal abuse or violence directed towards non-heterosexual persons
Institutional homophobia
Refers to discriminatory actions by societal institutions such as governments, educational institutions and businesses
Cultural homophobia/heterosexism
Refers to societal standards and norms that portray heterosexuality as “normal” and as a result, may depict non-heterosexual orientations as “deviant” or “abnormal”
Homelessness
- Homeless is the term used to describe the poor as well as those who have been displaced by war, violence, environmental catastrophe and economic depressions and recessions
- Homelessness is the result of many other social inequalities and problems that we need to address before we will be able to offer long-term solutions to this
- Homelessness occurs because of personal limitations or because there is something “wrong” with an individual including social, behavioural, emotional and psychological deficits